Illinois tax filing season delayed - again

The start of the federal and state tax-filing season has been delayed for a second straight year.

Last year, it was the "fiscal cliff." This year, it's the government shutdown.

Both the Internal Revenue Service and the Illinois Department of Revenue have announced postponements of tax filing to Jan. 31, amounting to a 10-day delay for federal returns and two weeks for the state.

April 15 remains the filing deadline.

"The original start date was scheduled to be Jan. 21," IRS spokesman Michael Devine with the St. Louis office said in an email, "but had to be delayed because of the October government shutdown to allow time to program and test tax-processing systems."

IRS employees were among those furloughed.

Devine said tax-software companies have been advised to accept and hold returns until filing begins Jan. 31. He said refunds should not be affected.

The start of filing was delayed to Jan. 30 last year after Congress made last-minute changes to the tax code as part of "fiscal cliff" legislation that was passed on New Year's Day.

State Revenue spokeswoman Sue Hofer said the agency typically begins processing returns in mid-January, but that taxpayers cannot complete Illinois forms without information from federal returns.

"You have to do your federal returns to do your state returns," she said.

The state expects to receive about 6 million individual returns this year. Hofer, too, said refunds should not be affected, adding that the department also postponed posting of 2014 tax forms online.

Hofer said this is typically a slow time for tax filing, as employers have until Jan. 31 to provide W-2 withholding forms to employees.

"Very few people file in January anyway," said Hofer, "so we don't think it will make much difference."

About 80 percent of Illinois returns were filed electronically in 2013.